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Students share thoughts, plans for celebrating Halloween as adults

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T’was a dark, foggy and chilly night ten years ago, yet you still remember that day like it was yesterday. Wearing masks with your squad, getting ready to undertake the best killing of your career, stuffed pillowcases filled with the treasure you and your team have worked for. You spill its contents on the floor to reveal the sweetest heist ever… pounds of free candy from your neighbors earned by simply shouting, “TRICK-OR-TREAT!”

Halloween is finally here and unfortunately for many of us, trick-or-treating is no longer an option, as we are too old or too tall to receive candy. But, just because trick-or-treating isn’t an option, it doesn’t mean that the Halloween spirit for those in the EMU community is dead. That would be ghoulish—I mean foolish—to think about.

The EMU community has plenty of ways to celebrate the holiday. Business major and junior Bobby Fisher plans on holding a house party, while Elizabeth Bazner, a children’s literature and drama senior plans on traveling to Ohio to visit her friend’s sister’s Halloween party as a guest. Brandon Dulock, an Earth science major and sophomore has different plans.

“I’m scheduled to spend the day working,” Dulock said, but he definitely will be out later dressing up and having fun with friends.

“I’m feeling a zombie costume this year,” Dulock said.

For guys like Dulock, finding costumes might come easier than finding ones for the ladies. Elizabeth Bazner noticed that many of the costumes sold at Halloween shops have become quite “skimpy” throughout the years.

“I don’t think it is fair that Halloween has turned into a holiday where women are objectified,” Bazner said.

She has noticed that the Halloween outfits for young girls have also become a little too revealing.

“It’s on the verge of being where one would consider it risqué,” Bazner said.

But don’t let the skimpy outfits at the shops discourage you from dressing up as your favorite fictional characters. Bazner shops online to create the most realistic costumes based on her favorite characters.

Besides dressing up and going to parties, EMU students like Fisher, Bazner and Dulock also enjoy scary films, carving pumpkins and celebrating with relatives.

Fisher said, “I really enjoy seeing how excited my younger family members get while trick-or-treating.”

Halloween is still widely considered a holiday for the kids, however, according to the National Retail Federation, it’s blossomed into a $6.9 billion dollar industry in the U.S., thanks to events like Halloweekends at Cedar Point, haunted houses, hayrides, and of course overpriced costumes.

With the Halloween industry ever evolving, one question remains: was the threat of razor blades in our candy legit, or was that our parents’ way of trying to snag a Snickers?

We may never know, until we become parents ourselves I guess. Happy Halloween, EMU.

Share with us a picture of your Halloween costume on Twitter or Instagram by tagging @TheEasternEcho and using the hashtag #EchoHalloween for your chance to be featured in the paper next week.